The straight dope from our Tour de News.

[July 5th, 2006] Political junkies, here's your one-stop midsummer fix: Former Oregon Republican Party chairman Kevin Mannix 's friends are pushing for the failed GOP gubernatorial candidate to replace the retiring Richard Butrick as the next boss of the state's leading business lobby, Associated Oregon Industries. While Mannix looks forward, state Democratic Party executive director Neel Pender should have been looking up: During a recent shopping trip at Columbia Sportswear's flagship downtown store on Southwest Broadway, Pender was hit by a sign that came unmoored from the ceiling. He was uninjured. Finally, Gov. Ted Kulongoski's sometimes chilly relations with Senate Democrats won't be helped by hiring Charlie Burr last week as his spokesman. Burr filed an elections complaint against state Sen. Ginny Burdick (D-Portland) in her unsuccessful challenge to City Commissioner Erik Sten earlier this year.

Greenies were seeing red last week after the Bush administration gave logging rights in southwest Oregon's formerly protected South Kalmiopsis Roadless Area to Silver Creek Timber , a company that was fined $1,300 for illegally cutting timber on federally protected lands. Adding insult to enviros' injury, U.S. Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Greg Walden (R-Ore.) both voted last week in favor of opening Oregon's coast to offshore drilling for oil and gas. Jeremiah Baumann of the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group says the hope now is that the bill won't get past the Senate.

The battle over a new state law compelling utilities to pay the taxes they collect from ratepayers (former PGE owner Enron pocketed $900 million in such funds) continues hot and heavy. Greg Abel, CEO of Iowa-based Mid-American Energy Holdings, the Warren Buffett company that just bought PacifiCorp , has personally lobbied Public Utility Commission chair Lee Beyer in recent weeks. Mid-American wants the commission to interpret Senate Bill 408 loosely enough that the bill passed last year by the Legislature treads as lightly as possible on PacifiCorp's bottom line. Meanwhile, PacifiCorp is blanketing interest groups with form letters to send to the PUC. And the utility has also hired two heavyweight Republican lobbyists, Brian Boe and Larry Campbell, to replace Alan Tressider.

John Ball, former chief of staff to Multnomah County Chairwoman Diane Linn, was fired last week from his job as CEO of the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors in California. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported that the board's 3-2 vote to can Ball came despite nearly 70 supporters rallying in his support. The board refused to explain its firing of Ball, who was hired little more than a year ago to "streamline" the county government. Insiders told the Santa Rosa paper that Ball had ruffled too many feathers during his shake-up of county departments.

Portland music icon Elliott Smith is posthumously making good on his commitments to help local troubled kids. Smith's family recently announced that Outside In, an agency helping Portland's homeless kids, would become a beneficiary of the late songwriter's memorial fund. Over the past three years, the fund has funneled more than $50,000 to Los Angeles-based Free Arts for Abused Children, but the contributions will now be split to benefit Outside In as well. Smith, who died in 2003 from allegedly self-inflicted stab wounds, "was vocal about helping abused kids, and had actually agreed to do a benefit for Outside In," a family member said in an online fan forum. Donations can be made at www.outsidein.org.

^WEB ONLY MURMURS:

Here's an oddity about Multnomah County only a wonk could love: County commissioners designate their own interim replacements in the event they must step down before their terms end. Wonder who's on deck for each commish? Us, too. Commissioner Maria Rojo de Steffey last year selected none other than El Hispanic News publisher Clara Padilla Andrews, the political ally and personal friend who's received unusual loan and staffing help from the county (see "Citizen Clara," WW, June 28, 2006, and page 7 for more). Chairwoman Diane Linn chose former Gov. Barbara Roberts; Serena Cruz would be succeeded by Charles Jordan, the first African American elected to Portland's City Council back in the '70s; Lisa Naito picked Democratic state Rep. Steve March; and Lonnie Roberts named Robert Paine, his staff assistant.